Winning is fun

This little winning streak I'm on has got me thinking about why I play. I used to play ultimate because it was fun. It is still fun but I don't know if that is why I play; I still play because I do more winning than losing and winning is fun. I'm not sure what happened between when I started and now but my goals have changed a bit over time. If I wasn't in a city with a decent team I don't know if I would still be playing because I would have gotten tired of losing a long time ago. Or maybe to be more honest with myself I should say that I am tired of losing but I'm fortunate that I don't do too much of it right now. I'll try to share what little insight I have on winning in this post.

The most obvious thing about winning is that it is difficult. The nature of sports is such that everyone is striving to beat the other teams. Only one team can be successful and be called the champion. Given our genetics (most humans are created relatively equal) it takes a lot to be able to be that team that rises above all others. Let's just take a look at the open division at UPA Fall Series; some 300 teams show up for sectionals only to get whittled down to about 96 teams for regionals after which the ultimate herd gets culled even further to the last 16. The champion that rises out of that pile is the best team of the 300 that started the whole process, not just the best of a 16 team tournament. That leaves about 299 losers in the whole process. So yeah, winning isn't easy.

That is the simple, statistical way of looking at the difficulty of winning but there is something slightly more intangible that I am referring to when I say that winning isn't easy. It is the mental aspect of winning. I don't pretend to know what it takes for everyone, I just know how it affects me through my experiences with in these situations.

It became really evident this past fall playing with DoG. Before our first game againt Troubled Past one of my captains told me that we would win the game because they "didn't want to win". He said it was easier for them to lose the game and come up with excuses than it was for them to put in the extra bit of effort on the field (we ended up beating them twice). I didn't quite understand what he meant until I thought about it in a few of the tight games that we had. My legs felt heavy, my body felt tired and my mind started to try to convince me that it really wouldn't be that bad to lose a game 15-13. The crazy thing is it's all up in your mind. It's as if you brain is ready to let you put in the effort to be good but doesn't want you to over-exert yourself in an attempt to be the best. Who knows, maybe it's part of a survival instinct hard-wired into our brains but the teams that have the most success are the teams that can break through that mental barrier. Thankfully I was surrounded by team mates who pulled me through that barrier because it can be pretty hard to get through it on your own. There were a few times where I think my body and mind were ready to give up but I had team mates on the sideline encouraging/forcing me to pick it up and keep going. That support was absolutely crucial in helping me fight through.

A couple of things to help you fight through that feeling are to:
1) Have high expectations. The moment you meet a goal you set for yourself you have a tendancy to think that your job is done. If your goal is to make the quarterfinals of a tournament and you do you will let up a bit without realizing it. You will be more likely to accept a setback in your next game because overall your goals have been acheived. Either set really lofty goals to start with or the moment you meet your goals, immediately set new goals.
2) Support your team mates through the feeling. Most of us hate letting our team mates down more than we hate letting ourselves down. If your team mates really work to encourage you to give more on the field, you'll find that tiny well of energy that will help you fight through the feeling of wanting to let up.
3) Don't think about the score. Let the captains worry about that. As an individual on a team your job is to go out and play. How many times has it happened that your team is down a few points, you fight back to tie the game and then go on to lose the game anyway. That's because once you fight back to tie the game your brain says, "whew, it's tied, we are back in this," and you let up just a bit. It's that letup that allows the other team to pull away again. You need to train your brain to say, "this is not enough," in those situations and go out for more. An even better habit to be in is that you don't even care about the score, you play all out every point and you just win the game outright without having to come back and deal with the internal mind-games.

I'm starting to get used to winning but it is still a struggle for me to deal with the mental aspect of it. At least now I'm more familiar with how it affects me and what I can do to fight through that block. From experience it is worth fighting through the feeling; you either fight through and win the game or you fight through and lose with pride. There is nothing worse than succumbing to the feeling and looking back with regret; it might be an easier thing to do at the moment but it's a much harder thing to deal with in the long run.

By the way, my team won 4 Corners. Make it 5 in a row (even though 4C is more a disc game than ultimate).

DF